How is it that your credit score can be so different from three different companies?

Answer 1

Simple really.

All three credit reporting agency's have their own way of calculating your credit score, add to that the fact that all lenders do not report to all of the bureaus and this explains the difference.

If you really want to see some wild swings in score consider that there are three bureaus and three types of bureaus that can be pulled.

There is the standard which is what you see on the web, there is the auto enhanced which is what car dealers and lenders look at and then there is the factual which is what mortgage lenders look at. So every person can have nine different scores.

I look at credit every day and 100-point swings are common.

Answer 2

Each credit reporting company reports different things. I didn't know this until recently. I was paying one of the 3 major credit report companies for quarterly reports and everything had been looking fine. Suddenly I get turned down for a loan due to a judgment against me. WHAT??? Nothing on that credit report. I then get credit reports from the company that reported it to the lender (one of the other major 3) and there it was... My identity had been stolen 5 years ago and $3000 in fraudulent charges had been charged to one of my accounts that I didn't use. I did get it cleared up, but back to your question... When I questioned the credit report company I had been paying it said Oh, we don't all report the same thing, your report and score will be different from all of us! WHAT SENSE DOES THAT MAKE???

Answer 3

Because not all have exactly the same information. One credit bureau may have older or newer info than another. Not all of them will have every single account you've ever had.

Also make sure that all 3 are reporting your FICO score. I once had one of them, I think it was Transunion report my score as 858. FICO only goes up to 850. I found out that Transunion has it's own scoring model, and unless you pay for the FICO score, you get the credit bureaus useless internal score.

Answer 4

Because they make mistakes. The three systems work independently of one another and I know for a fact that their information is not always correct. I have personal experience with this happening. I notified one of the companies about their mistake (wrong name) and send all of the documentation they ask for. They didn't change a thing. They didn't even open a case for me.

Answer 5

They compute it differently using different facts.

Answer 6

www.creditinfocenter.com